Electricity / 電力

Next to fresh water, electricity is the most important thing as it powers all of our instruments- navigation, satellite, radio, lights…. We have three source of electricity: diesel generator , hydro and wind generator and solar. The diesel is very reliable, but needs fuel to run which we want to save to use the engine. The output from solar is not so high and variable: it is high when sun is directly shinning on panels, gets lower as the angle of sun changes or parts of the panel get shaded and produces no electricity at night. So, the hydrogenerator is the key producer of energy as it produces electricity as long as the boat is moving through the water, But, the speed through the water is very important. At 5 knots of boat speed the hydrogenerator might produce 5 amps of electricity, but at 9 knots it might produce almost 20!